Pumpkin Guts
by Sikla Alkis
Summary: Under the gaze of the Harvest Moon, two monsters among their kind meet in blood-drenched moonlight. - W:tF


**PUMPKIN GUTS**  
**by Sikla Alkis**

"Pumpkin guts".

That was what he used to describe the carnage. The globs of gore and fragments of bone slid off his claws like pumpkin guts; he stood, red-drenched, beneath a bloodied moon. The corn still grew, but the fields had been overrun with weeds, and it was his fault; he'd lost himself. I could hear his muttering halfway across the field, my paws slow and steady through the plants.

I could feel the same pull as he did. The moon was bright, full and round and red. The light tinged down pink-orange, and my hackles rose at the chill of its touch. In a distance too far to measure, I heard an eerie, grinding hum — a warped, metallic singing. He lifted his head and joined in with a howl.

They said he should have been dead. They said I should have been dead too. I was better than that; I could feel the Rage pulsing, unnaturally hungry even for a Uratha. It cried out for a torn body, for vengeance painted across the abandoned farm, and for an offering to the Blood Moon high in the sky. I shook my head, and took a breath, reciting wise words to keep my focus:_The Wolf Must Hunt. Do Not Eat the Flesh of Man or Wolf. The People Do Not Murder The People._ I had to keep myself strong.

There was a single thread wrapped around his insanity, keeping it in check. He hadn't betrayed the pack; he was hungry, oh so hungry, but he would never betray the pack. He had hidden away where his shame was revealed, where he first gave into the monster that called from the Moon. He was desperate, choking out sobs as he tore into the flesh of the stolen wolf-blooded. My teeth clenched, and I suppressed a growl; the body was a young woman's. She no doubt came from the town nearby, and the villagers would not be happy. We had an agreement, and we had promised — perhaps foolishly — to bring back all the missing alive. I now worried for what he might have done to his other victims.

I couldn't help but imagine what I'd do to him. I imagined his body, stretched out like a canvas and scraped clean; there was murder in my mouth. I imagined him begging, screaming to Luna for mercy, or a fate less terrible than the one I gave. I imagined my pack joining in, yipping and howling as we hung him out as a still-living, eviscerated scarecrow. I imagined turning him inside out and singing as I did, chanting a harvest song to Luna as I watered the plants with his juices. A wolf's smile crept across my lips as I imagined all the red, red, _red_, so pretty and glistening and decorating the autumn leaves. Red to match the trees, and red to match the moon.

A train of saliva dripped from my mouth; I idly wondered if he'd taste like venison, or if he'd stink and be as tasteless as humans were. I stepped a little too hard, and something dry crackled and broke. With a grunting growl, he turned his splattered face towards me, bits of arteries and offal plastered against his chest. The blood trailed down his front like an apron or bib.

"Found you," I growled back, stepping from the dark of the fields and taking the Urshul. There was fear in his eyes, and he pissed himself seeing me. I was almost five feet above him, and even if turned Urshul too, I was the giant. It had given my pack all the more reason to fear of me.

Above me, the singing became a roaring. I bared my fangs, letting out an angry snarl. He took the Gauru, snapping his massive jaws together, warning me to stay back. I let out a raspy chuckle, a deep and unnatural sound coming from a wolf.

Two Gishtahu are standing beneath the Harvester's Moon. We had violated each other's territory; he'd taken one of our_urugarum_, and I had come to his "special place", where I had promised I'd never come to. I'd even sworn it on my honour and by the _Gishlunim_. I could feel the fury wafting from him, and the _Gishlunim_ above were roaring in disapproval. The Martyr's Choir was not one taken lightly; I laughed when the other wolves thought _their_ Lunes could be insane.

We stared at each other, the seconds slowing to a crawl, until he realized he didn't have much time left in Gauru. And so, we leapt for each other's throats, and never had the countryside heard such a horrible noise.

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_~ ooo ~_

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The World of Darkness_ copyright White Wolf Publishing; text copyright me_


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